2026 McConnell Lecture

Protein dynamics are critical for function and many of nature's molecules are highly dynamic. In this talk I will describe applications to several important systems that are now possible using new solution NMR approaches, including studies of molecular machines, of phase separation at atomic resolution, and of sparsely populated and transiently formed protein conformers that are invisible to most of the techniques of structural biology.

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Lewis Kay is Professor of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Chemistry at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. He received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Alberta in 1983 and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Yale University in 1988, pursuant to which he spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow in Chemical Physics at the NIH. Appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in 1992, he was promoted to Professor three years later. In 2012, he was named University Professor by the University of Toronto, the highest academic distinction bestowed by the institution.

Professor Kay's research cuts across the interface of physical chemistry and medical sciences. His work focuses on transforming the techniques of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as applied to the study of large proteins and their complexes, particularly those that are involved in health and disease.

Professor Kay has published over 510 research papers and the tools developed in his laboratory are disseminated freely, used extensively worldwide, and have far-reaching impact not only for current research, but also for future discoveries. Professor Kay is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Canada and of London, and an international member of the National Academy of Science.